G Styled: Fusion Garage Grid10 – JooJoo Deja Vu

By Jason Anderson (of G Style Magazine) | Oct 9, 2011 10:15 AM EST

As much as I wanted to believe this tablet would bring something new and fresh to the scene, upon seeing the JooJoo…I mean Fusion Garage Grid10 I started feeling we’ve been here before. I wanted to like the Grid10. From the videos of the device, it look like a stylish and unique tablet. In person, however, it’s another story. Bottom line: the Grid10 starts off wrong with the hardware.

I can’t remember the last time someone has shouted to another person “Your a square!”, and meant it as a term of endearment or as an acknowledgement of that person’s coolness. Being a square just isn’t cool. This might be why most tablets have some curves. Fusion Garage thought they could be different with a square, but they failed. They are left with an ugly piece of hardware and sharp pains when it comes to those corners.

OK so the hardware sucks, but maybe the user interface can save this device. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen a tablet whose hardware I didn’t like, but its UI was great (coughs HP TouchPad). And, at first glance, Fusion Garage’s GridOS is unique, fresh, and cool…for all of about 60 seconds. This OS definitely doesn’t have what I call “replay value”. I love moving around “the grid” (since I’m a heavy Tron lover), and this novelty quickly wears off. After that I am pretty much over it and missing some of the most familiar tablet OS UIs.

This tablet is not out of the box, pick up and play friendly. I got stuck in the search area for about 10 to 15 minutes and couldn’t figure out how to get back to the home screen. So for all it’s unique look and flare, it is all for nothing if I can’t even escape from the search area. I want a tablet that, from the moment I turn it on, I can navigate the device without having to read the manual.

All in all, the Grid10 is a fashion disaster: Ugly on the inside and out. Once again Fusion Garage fails to escape the past failure of their first tablet. In my opinion, it’s deja vu all over again for this company, and that should just hang it up at this point. They are definitely suffering from bad joojoo…maybe someone forgot to burn some sage before trying to clean this slate!